Club Could Be Legal But It's Sure Not Right

The young woman walked up to me when I was out the other night and said she wanted to complain about one of my columns.

''Why are you against some people enjoying their constitutional rights?'' she asked.

And what constitutional rights might those be? I asked.

''Freedom of assembly,'' she said.

Didn't know I was against that, I said.

''Then why don't you think members of the Country Club of Orlando should be free to assemble with whomever they please?'' she asked.

God, I hate trick questions.

She's a nice young woman, working at a law office. She plans to go to law school. And her father is a member of the Country Club of Orlando.

''He started with nothing. Nothing,'' she said. ''Joining the country club was a mark of his success. And he has a right to enjoy that success however he chooses.''

It reminded me of a phone conversation I'd had a week or so earlier. It was with another Country Club of Orlando member, a pleasant gentleman who often calls or writes to comment on something I've written. He didn't like what I'd written about the Country Club of Orlando.

''It's a sad state of affairs when you can't join a club and not be hassled by people whom you wouldn't normally associate with,'' he said. And then he quickly added: ''But I want you to know -- I am not a bigot.''

Indeed, his name is on what might be called the ''short list'' that appears in the most recent issue of the Winter Park-based arts magazine, Zelo. Mike Segal, Zelo's publisher, opposes what he believes are discriminatory policies practiced at the club. He paid a source $500 for the club's membership list. Then he sent all members a letter, with a postage paid return envelope, asking them to sign a statement saying they didn't believe in discrimination according to race, sex or religion.

Forty members, including state Sen. George Stuart and state Rep. Bruce McEwan, signed and returned the anti-discrimination statement. More than 800 other members, including some of Central Florida's most notable business and civic leaders, didn't sign the statement. Their names, on the ''long list,'' also appear in the magazine.

''I'm not saying the people whose names appear on the long list are bigots,'' said Segal. ''I'm just showing that, for one reason or another, they didn't sign the statement. People can draw their own conclusions.''

Some of the conclusions aren't very pretty. One of the return envelopes contained a 20 percent discount coupon to be used at Dubsdread, the city of Orlando-owned golf course that is open to the public. The note to Segal said: ''Thought you might want 20 percent discount Jew Boy. Hope the PLO Palestine Liberation Organization wins.'' Others threatened to sue if their names appeared in the magazine. And at least one member has asked the state to file charges against Segal for ''extortion and slander.''

The Country Club of Orlando is the bedrock of ''old'' Orlando society. Its members include many good and honorable people. And it's only fair to let the club tell its side of this issue. Unfortunately, its leaders are not exactly forthcoming.

''I speak for the club,'' Donald Estridge, the club secretary and manager, told me. ''It is a private club. Therefore, my comment on this and on all matters relating to the club is -- no comment.''

What we're left with then are widespread reports of discrimination that must go unanswered. Here are a couple, chosen from several that I've heard:

-- Winter Park financier Philip Crosby, who joined the club in 1981, wanted to hold his business's Christmas party at the club in 1986. ''I was very discreetly taken aside by the manager at that time and told that my black and Jewish friends would not be welcome,'' Crosby said. He resigned his membership shortly afterward. The club, says Crosby, is ''an anachronism.''

-- For 12 years, until 1985, John Van Eepoel of Winter Springs was in charge of the Central Florida Junior Tennis League, made up of teen-agers representing various country clubs, community centers and recreation programs. Says Van Eepoel: ''I had specific instructions from the country club that any matches played on its courts were to be scheduled with teams that didn't have black players. If a team showed up with a black player, they said, their team would default rather than play.''

Crosby and Van Eepoel are both good and honorable men. Because I am presented with nothing to the contrary, I can only believe that these incidents, and others like them, have occurred at the Country Club of Orlando. Getting back to the original question: No, I don't oppose anyone's right of assembly. But there appear to be other factors at play here. And when the right of assembly mocks the dignity of other human beings, then there is nothing in anyone's constitution that can justify it.